At a meeting with the coordinators of the political groups in the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture on Wednesday 2 February, Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski dampened the hopes of those calling for market measures for the pigmeat sector.
Although 13 Member States called for market measures for pig producers in the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) on Monday 31 January, “seven Member States, including the main producer countries, such as Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland, did not support a call for market measures”, the Commissioner for Agriculture said in his speech (https://aeur.eu/f/5q ).
“Those seven Member States make up for almost two-thirds of EU pig production, and they have not asked for market measures. I think this is a clear signal and a signal I cannot ignore”, said Wojciechowski.
The French Presidency of the Council of the EU is trying to rally a majority in favour of such market measures (see EUROPE 12880/10).
Mr Wojciechowski recalled that €270 million in State aid had been made available by France.
“The size of the French package, if scaled up at EU level, would amount to €2.7 billion, six times higher than the crisis reserve”, the Commissioner also explained. The agricultural crisis reserve amounts to €497.3 million in 2022 and is financed by reducing the amount of direct aid. Janusz Wojciechowski, therefore, advocates national aid rather than market measures.
The French Presidency of the Council of the EU intends to put the issue of the crisis in the pig sector back on the agenda of the next meeting of the Agriculture Council on 21 and 22 February. The Agriculture Ministers may also discuss this issue in the near future alongside the informal meeting in Strasbourg from 6 to 8 February. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)